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Just saw this at Elderly. As a guitar and mandolin player, who loves a recently-purchased Martin tenor, this looks kind of interesting [right down to the John Pearce armrest - who would need one on such a small instrument??]. Never seen one like it before . . . !

The double course Martin tenor may be based on Nick Reynold's O-18 tenor he had converted to an 8 string while playing with the Kingston Trio. #In some of the publicity photos from the late '50's, you'll see Nick w/ a double course 0-18 tenor that he had the Martin company convert from a 4 string to an 8 string. #He didn't do this for any type of mandolin effect--my understanding is that he did that to increase volume. #It's possible that this Martin double course tenor may be have been made toward the end of the folk era due to that influence. #Reynold's tuned his in standard tenor tuning (C-G-D-A).

I just recently got an 1930 Martin 0-18 tenor that I'm told belonged to Grisman before me. #Fantastic instrument. #

I have done that conversion on a few Martin tenors, it's a natural. I sure wouldn't liken it to a bouzouki in any sense though. Real bouzoukis have a 26+"scale and are tuned CFAD, a step below a regular guitar's top four strings. Tenor guitars are meant to be tuned way higher: CGDA, the same as a viola or tenor banjo. Most people tune these double-strung things GDAE, an octave below a mandolin, and the proper term would be octave or tenor mandolin.